travel

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Photography

Photography by Thomas Prior

When he was 13 years old, New York-based photographer Thomas Prior won a drawing contest and used the money to buy a Pentax K1000 camera. By the age of 20, while still attending SVA, he began assisting on commercial shoots while developing his own direct, almost simplistic approach to photography. Prior relies almost completely on natural lighting and a brilliant eye to capture uncanny images in unexpected places. Gathered here is a selection of photos from the past few years, you can see more on his frequently updated Tumblr, and a recently created Instagram account. (via All of this Is Rocket Science)

Photography

A Couple’s Incredible 550,000-Mile Odyssey Through 177 Countries Over 26 Years. In a Single Car.

In moments of peak stress, boredom, or desperation for change, we’ve probably all shared the same dream: why not just drop everything and travel. Many are lucky do it for a few months, or even a couple of years, but perhaps no modern travelers have been more ambitious than Gunther and Christine Holtorf, who set out in 1990 on a tour of Africa in a Mercedes Benz G Wagon named ‘Otto,’ and never looked back. Over the next 20 years the trio would rack up almost 550,000 miles (885,139km) across some 177 countries. They never once slept in a hotel, preferring to string up hammocks or sleep inside Otto, a car that required a stockpile of 400 spare parts lashed to the roof for emergency repairs.

Their adventures lead them to encounters with numerous vanishing cultures, extraordinary wildlife, and special permission to drive through both Cuba and even North Korea. There were also tricky political situations, a few minor car wrecks, and no less than five cases of malaria. Christine passed away in 2010, but Gunther, now 76, continued traveling for several more years before recently returning to Berlin.

The video from 2012 above includes some great highlights from the Hortorf’s trek, but what you really need to do is scroll through this new interactive travelogue from the BBC that includes some newly published photos and a full written account of their decades-long adventures. Also, here’s Gunther telling a great story about his close encounter with a hyena. (via PetaPixel)

Update: Here’s a 2013 interview with Gunther from Outside.

Photography

Mysterious Landscapes of People Exploring the World by Nicolas Bouvier

To explore the photography of French art director and concept designer Nicolas Bouvier is to become lost in strange new world, the inhabitants of which are dwarfed by the towering silhouettes of tree and mountains, or swallowed completely by eerie fog and haze. Though these landscapes are indeed real, shot in locations mostly in the Pacific Northwestern U.S., it may not be surprising that Bouvier’s day job is pure science fiction: he creates stunning concept art and illustrations for video games like Halo and Assassin’s Creed. While his concept art has gathered wide acclaim (he’s currently publishing a third book of his own illustrations), his photographic work has also flourished, garnering a significant following over on Flickr. We’ve featured his images several times right here on Colossal as part of our Flickr Finds series.

Currently based in Seattle, Bouvier first picked up a camera in the 1990s while in school, but it wasn’t until 2007 that he began shooting again in earnest. He has since amassed a collection of nearly two dozen cameras (he mentions he picked up a Lumix ZS40 just yesterday), all of which he experiments with as he explores locations around California, Washington, Oregon, Mexico, and France with his family who often appear as subjects in his surreal photos.

It was nearly impossible to make a selection of work for this post, so I strongly urge you to click this link, grab some coffee, and then press the right arrow on your keyboard about 1,100 times. You won’t regret it.

Art Design

Modern Ruins: An Artist’s Vehicle Designed to Traverse 9,000 Kilometers of Abandoned Railways in Mexico

What do you do with the abandoned railways that once held the promise of trans-continental linkage and progress? Some have converted them into tourist-friendly pathways. But Mexican artists and brothers Ivan Puig (previously) and Andrés Padilla Domene decided to traverse the nearly 9,000 km of railway in Mexico and Ecuador that, in 1995, was abandoned and left to decay. But they didn’t travel in any old fashion. In a project that ran from 2010 to 2012 the artists rode in a striking silver road-rail vehicle called SEFT-1, which they designed and built themselves so as to travel both on rail and road.

The multi-year journey, which was documented online, explored abandoned rail but also the notion of modern ruins, and “how the ideology of progress is imprinted onto historic landscapes.” (via Hyperallergic)

Amazing

Koh Yao Noi: A Beautiful Aerial Tour of an Undeveloped Island in Thailand by Philip Bloom

This has been shared far and wide around the web over the last week, but if you haven’t seen it yet take a quick gander at filmmaker Philip Bloom‘s (previously) visit to Koh Yao Noi, one of the least developed islands in Thailand. Bloom shot the piece while on vacation using a GoPro camera and a Quadcopter, the details of which he goes into over on his blog. It’s nice to see Bloom making use of technology to quickly establish such a strong sense of place. (via Coudal)

Documentary Photography

A Tribute to Discomfort: Insights from National Geographic Photographer Cory Richards

At the age of 14, photographer Cory Richards had dropped out of high school and was technically homeless. His education, he says, was instead obtained through the observation of struggle. Through various forms of discomfort and adventure he would eventually become the first American to successfully summit an 8,000-meter peak in winter (Pakistan’s Gasherbrum II), and launch an incredible career in photography through the pages of National Geographic.

Brooklyn-based digital media company Blue Chalk recently sat down with Richards to discuss his motivations and driving desire to connect with the people he photographs. (via ISO 1200, PetaPixel)

Photography

Underworld: The Intrepid Cave Photography of Robbie Shone

Robbie Shone is a British adventure, cave and travel photographer based out of Austria. His adventures have led him to the remotest areas of China, Papua New Guinea, Borneo, the Alps and Crete where he has photographed the deepest, largest, and longest cave systems ever discovered. These feats involve dangling on a thin rope 650 ft. (200m) above the floor in the world’s deepest natural shaft, exploring the far ends of a 117 mile long cave system, and spending nearly four days continuously underground on shoots.

Collected here are some of his most jaw-dropping shots, many from a 2012 excursion into cave systems in Wulong County, China. You can explore more of his cave photography over on his website. All imagery courtesy the photographer. (via This Isn’t Happiness)